The
Porter-class destroyers were a class of eight 1,850-ton large
destroyers in the
United States Navy. Like the preceding
Farragut Class, their construction was authorized by Congress on 26 April 1916, but funding was delayed considerably. They were designed based on an 1,850-ton
standard displacement limit imposed by the
London Naval Treaty; the treaty's tonnage limit allowed 13 ships of this size, and the similar was built later to meet the limit. The first four
Porters were laid down in 1933 by
New York Shipbuilding in
Camden, New Jersey and the next four in 1934 at
Bethlehem Steel Corporation in
Quincy, Massachusetts. All were commissioned in 1936 except
Winslow, which was commissioned in 1937. They were built in response to the
large destroyers that the
Imperial Japanese Navy was building at the time, and were initially leaders of destroyer flotillas. They served extensively in
World War II, in the
Pacific War, the
Atlantic, and in the
Americas. was the class's only loss, in the
Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on 26 October 1942.